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Map of my gameworld

This will probably be the toughest thing for me to post because it is a map of my game world I created about 15 years ago to roleplay with friends. I think Ascension said it best in another thread and I paraphrase him loosely, "I will probably never post a map of my world because I could never do it justice when compared with what's in my mind." Also, If I ever get around to writing a book (something I plan to do one day) this would be the place it would start. So while I would love to share just about any other map I could make, for some reason I'm a tad hesitant on this one.

Then I reminded myself that if I want to get into doing digital art, maps and so on I have to get as much experience as possible and I need all the critiques and help I can get. I barely know how to use Gimp well, I learn something new every time I make a new image and I'm sure I do half the stuff the long way so eventually I am sure I will be doing better work than this. So, saying screw the comfort zone, I'm going to post it in reduced resolution that seems to look just fine on my screen.

I will attempt to give snapshots of my WIP on this up to the most current image which has no labels because I removed them from the original scan. These are not the full resolution but have been reduced to 100ppi and saved as .jpg @ 85% quality.

** sorry for the long post but I had to get that off my chest **

1. Scanned in & spliced together - I had drawn this decades ago and the first thing I noticed? Holy crap I didn't know anything about river violations! I must have fixed them and saved over my original.
2. Added ocean layers and some texture.
3. Painted the locations in color - In retrospect I should have just redone them separately and cut/pasted them in but oh well.
4. skipped a bunch of steps but now it's got some colors, legend, compass, and my favorite a little critter I scanned in from my sketchbook Oh, and I changed that spiked tower location down south, it just didn't fit well.
5. I experimented with an idea for the mountains and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out I think I'll stick with them. This brings you up to date on the project and next time I will do a proper WIP thread if I can.

Attached Thumbnails

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden